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Uzbek is a spoken by . It is the official and national language of and formally succeeded Chagatai, an earlier Karluk language endonymically called Türki or Türkçe, as the literary language of Uzbekistan in the 1920s.

9789751733597, T. C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Mudürlüğü.

According to the , Southern Uzbek and Standard Uzbek are spoken as a native language by more than 34 million people around the world, making Uzbek the second-most widely spoken after . There are about 36 million around the world, and the reason why the number of speakers of the Uzbek language is greater than that of ethnic Uzbeks themselves is because many other ethnic groups such as , , who live in speak Uzbek as their second language.

There are two major variants of the Uzbek language: Northern Uzbek, or simply "Uzbek", spoken in , , , , and ; and Southern Uzbek, spoken in and . Both Northern and Southern Uzbek are divided into many dialects. Uzbek and are sister languages and they constitute the or "Southeastern" branch of Turkic.

External influences on Uzbek include , , and .

(1998). 9781408102145, Columbia University Press.
One of the most noticeable distinctions of Uzbek from other Turkic languages is the rounding of the vowel to under the influence of . Unlike other Turkic languages, is almost completely lost in modern Standard Uzbek, though it is still observed to some degree in its dialects, as well as in Uyghur.

Different dialects of Uzbek show varying degrees of influence from other languages such as Kipchak and Oghuz Turkic (for example, in grammar) as well as Persian (in phonology), which gives literary Uzbek the impression of being a mixed language.

(2015). 9781317430070, Routledge. .

In February 2021, the Uzbek government announced that Uzbekistan plans to fully transition the Uzbek language from the script to a -based alphabet by 1 January 2023. Uzbekistan Aims For Full Transition To Latin-Based Alphabet By 2023, 12 February 2021 12:54 GMT, RadioFreeEurope Similar deadlines had been extended several times. , most institutions still use both alphabets.


Classification
Uzbek is the western member of the Karluk languages, a subgroup of Turkic; the eastern variant is Uyghur. Karluk is classified as a dialect continuum. Northern Uzbek was determined to be the most suitable variety to be understood by the most number of speakers of all Turkic languages despite it being heavily , excluding the Siberian Turkic languages. A high degree of mutual intelligibility found between certain specific Turkic languages has allowed Uzbek speakers to more easily comprehend various other distantly related languages.


Number of speakers
Uzbek, being the most widely spoken indigenous language in , is as well spoken by smaller ethnic groups in Uzbekistan and in neighbouring countries.

The language is spoken by other ethnic groups outside Uzbekistan. The popularity of Uzbek media, including and RizanovaUz, has spread among the post-Soviet states, particularly in in recent years. Since Uzbek is the dominant language in the (and mothertongue of the city ), like the rest of Eastern, Southern and South-Eastern Kyrgyzstan (Jalal-Abad Region), the ethnic are, too, exposed to Uzbek, and some speak it fluently. This is a common situation in the rest of Central Asian republics, including: the , northern Daşoguz Welaýat of Turkmenistan, and other regions of Tajikistan. This puts the number of L2 speakers of Uzbek at a varying 1–5 million speakers.

The Uzbek language has a special status in countries that are common destination for for Uzbekistani citizens. Other than and other Central Asian Republics, the ethnic most commonly choose the Russian Federation in search of work. Most of them however, are seasonal workers, whose numbers vary greatly among residency within the Russian Federation. According to Russian government statistics, 4.5 million workers from Uzbekistan, 2.4 million from , and 920,000 from were working in in 2021, with around 5 million being ethnic Uzbeks.

Estimates of the number of native speakers of Uzbek vary widely, from 35 up to 40 million. estimates put the number of native speakers at 33 million across all the recognized dialects. The Swedish national encyclopedia, Nationalencyklopedin, estimates the number of native speakers to be 38 million,"Världens 100 största språk 2007" ("The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007"), Nationalencyklopedin and the CIA World Factbook estimates 30 million. Other sources estimate the number of speakers of Uzbek to be 34 million in Uzbekistan, 4.5 million in Afghanistan, 1,630,000 in Pakistan, 1,500,000 in Tajikistan, about 1 million in Kyrgyzstan, 600,000 in Kazakhstan, 600,000 in Turkmenistan, and 300,000 in Russia.

The Uzbek language is taught in more than fifty higher education institutions around the world.


Etymology
Historically, the language under the name Uzbek referred to a totally different language of Kipchak origin. The language was generally similar to the neighbouring , more or less identical lexically, phonetically and grammatically. It was dissimilar to the area's indigenous and native language, known as Turki, until it was changed to Chagatai by western scholars due to its origins from the .Vladimir Babak; Demian Vaisman; Aryeh Wasserman (23 November 2004). Political Organization in Central Asia and Azerbaijan: Sources and Documents. Routledge. pp. 343–. ISBN 978-1-135-77681-7. The ethnonym of the language itself now means "a language spoken by the ."


History
Turkic speakers probably settled the , and river basins from at least 600–650 AD, gradually ousting or assimilating the speakers of the Eastern Iranian languages who previously inhabited , and . The first Turkic dynasty in the region was that of the Kara-Khanid Khanate from the 9th–12th centuries, a confederation of , , , and other tribes.

Uzbek (along with Uyghur) can be considered the direct descendant of Chagatai, the language of great Turkic Central Asian literary development in the realm of , (Tamerlane), and the

(1994). 9780822315216, Duke University Press. .
(including the early Mughal rulers of the ). Chagatai contained large numbers of Persian and Arabic . By the 19th century, it was rarely used for literary composition and disappeared only in the early 20th century.

Muhammad Shaybani ( – 2 December 1510), the first Khan of Bukhara, wrote poetry under the pseudonym "Shibani". A collection of Chagatai poems by Muhammad Shaybani is currently kept in the Topkapı Palace Museum manuscript collection in . The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work, Bahr al-Khudā, written in 1508, is located in London.A.J.E.Bodrogligeti, «Muhammad Shaybanî’s Bahru’l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay», Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, vol.54 (1982), p. 1 and n.4

Shaybani's nephew (1486–1540) skillfully recited the and provided it with commentaries in Chagatai. Ubaydulla himself wrote poetry in Chagatai, Classical Persian, and Arabic under the literary pseudonym Ubaydiy.B. V. Norik, Rol shibanidskikh praviteley v literaturnoy zhizni Maverannakhra XVI v. // Rakhmat-name. Sankt Petersburg, 2008, p.230

For the Uzbek political elite of the 16th century, Chagatai was their native language. For example, the leader of the semi-nomadic Uzbeks, Sheibani Khan (1451–1510), wrote poems in Chagatai.A.J.E.Bodrogligeti, «MuÌammad Shaybænî’s Bahru’l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay», Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, vol.54 (1982), p. 1 and n.4

The poet Turdiy (17th century) in his poems called for the unification of the divided Uzbek tribes: "Although our people are divided, but these are all Uzbeks of ninety-two tribes. We have different names – we all have the same blood. We are one people, and we should have one law. Floors, sleeves and collars – it's all – one robe, So the Uzbek people are united, may they be in peace."Turdy. Izbrannyye proizvedeniya. Tashkent, 1951, p.33

Sufi Allayar (1633–1721) was an outstanding theologian and one of the of the Khanate of Bukhara. He showed his level of knowledge by writing a book called Sebâtü'l-Âcizîn. Sufi Allayar was often read and highly appreciated in Central Asia.

The term Uzbek as applied to language has meant different things at different times.

  • Uzbek was a Kipchak language spoken by descendants of those who arrived in who lived mainly around and .
  • Chagatai was a Karluk language spoken by the older settled Turkic populations ("") of the region in the and the Qashqadaryo Region, and in some parts of what is now the ; it contained a heavier admixture of Persian and Arabic and did not have .

During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Chagatai remained the main literary language in most of Central Asia, but it faced a phase of decay.Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan." Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies. p. 318. Comp. Glenn E. Curtis. Washington, D.C.: Division, 1997 Eventually, Chagatai was mostly referred to as the language of the , the settled Turkic-speaking populations of the , although the definition of this term shifted through the decades. According to the Kazakh scholar , who lived at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, "there is no special Sart language different from Uzbek".Bronnikova O. M., Sarty v etnicheskoy istorii Sredney Azii (k postanovke problemy) Etnosy i etnicheskiye protsessy. Moskva: Vostochnaya literatura, 1993, s. 153. Russian researchers of the second half of the 19th century, like L. N. Sobolev, believed that "Sart is not a special tribe, as many tried to prove. Sart is indifferently called both Uzbek and Tajik, who live in the city and are engaged in trade".Sobolev L. N. Geograficheskiye i statisticheskiye svedeniya o Zeravshanskom okruge (s prilozheniyem spiska naselonnykh mest okruga), Zapiski IRGO po otdeleniyu statistiki. SPb., 1874. T.4. S. 299. Prim. 1.

As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek",

(2025). 9789004201453, Brill Academic. .
(2006). 9780306480836, Springer Science & Business Media. .
(1998). 9780231115681, Columbia University Press. .
(2007). 9780857710918, I.B.Tauris. .
which Edward A. Allworth argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as Ali-Shir Nava'i an identity.
(1990). 9780817987329, Hoover Institution Press. .

After the independence of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek government opted to reform Northern Uzbek by changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin in an attempt to stimulate the growth of Uzbek in a new, independent state. However, the reform never went into full application, and both alphabets are widely used, from daily uses to government publications and TV news. Uzbek language hasn't eclipsed Russian in the government sector since Russian is used widely in sciences, politics, and by the upper class of the country. However, the Uzbek internet, including , is growing rapidly.


Writing systems
Uzbek has been written in a variety of scripts throughout history:
  • 1000–1920s: The traditional Arabic script, first in the Qarakhanid standard and next in the Chagatai standard. This is seen as the golden age of the Uzbek language and literary history.
  • 1920–1928: the Arabic-based Yaña imlâ alphabet.
    (1997). 9780897749404, Greenwood Publishing Group. .
  • 1928–1940: the Latin-based Yañalif was imposed officially.
  • 1940–1992: the was used officially.
    (2011). 9783110853384, Walter de Gruyter.
  • Since 1992: Switch back to Latin script, with heavy holdover usage of Cyrillic.

Despite the official status of the Latin script in Uzbekistan, the use of Cyrillic is still widespread, especially in advertisements and signs. In newspapers, scripts may be mixed, with headlines in Latin and articles in Cyrillic.

(2025). 9783825883096, LIT Verlag Münster. .
The Arabic script is no longer used in Uzbekistan except symbolically in limited texts or for the academic studies of Chagatai (Old Uzbek).

In 2019, an updated version of the Uzbek Latin alphabet was revealed by the Uzbek government, with five letters being updated; it was proposed to represent the sounds "ts", "sh", "ch", "oʻ" and "gʻ" by the letters "c", "ş", "ç", "ó" and "ǵ", respectively. This would have reversed a 1995 reform, and brought the orthography closer to that of and also of , Karakalpak, (2018 version) and Azerbaijani. In 2021, it was proposed to change "sh", "ch", "oʻ" and "gʻ" to "ş", "ç", "ō" and "ḡ". These proposals were not implemented.

In the western Chinese region of , in northern and in ,

(2017). 9781438780207, Lulu.com. .
where there is an Uzbek minority, the Arabic-based script is still used. In the early 21st century, in Afghanistan, standardization, publication of dictionaries, and an increase in usage (for example in News agencies' website, such as that of the BBC) has been taking place.

Modern Latin alphabetА аB bD dЕ еF fG g
H hI iJ jK kL lМ m
N nО оP pQ qR rS s
Т tU uV vX xY yZ z
Oʻ oʻGʻ gʻSh shCh chNg ng

Cyrillic alphabetА аБ бВ вГ гҒ ғД дЕ е
Ё ёЖ жЗ зИ иЙ йК кҚ қ
Л лМ мН нО оП пР рС с
Т тУ уЎ ўФ фХ хҲ ҳЦ ц
Ч чШ шЪ ъЬ ьЭ эЮ юЯ я

Modern Arabic alphabetابپتثجچح
خدذرزژسش
صضطظعغفق
کگلمنوهی


Phonology
Words are usually (i.e. the last syllable is stressed), but certain endings and suffixal particles are not stressed. Consonants in brackets are only attested in loanwords.


Vowels
Standard Uzbek has six vowel phonemes. Uzbek language has many dialects: contrary to many Turkic languages, Standard Uzbek no longer has , but other dialects (Kipchak Uzbek and Oghuz Uzbek) retain vowel harmony.

  • and can have short allophones and , and central allophones and . can have an open back allophone .
  • and can become and when the syllable or the vowel is adjacent to the phonemes , , and ( yaxshi یخشی "good" ).


Consonants


Grammar
As a Turkic language, Uzbek is null subject, agglutinative and has no (gender or otherwise). Although Uzbek has no articles, it has indefinite articles bir بِیر and bitta بِیتَّه. Like other Turkic languages, nouns only conjugate as "" in the . An indefinite direct object is conjugated in the . The word order is subject–object–verb (SOV).

In Uzbek, there are two main categories of words: nominals (equivalent to nouns, pronouns, adjectives and some adverbs) and verbals (equivalent to verbs and some adverbs).


Nouns
Plurals are formed by suffix -lar ـلر. Nouns take the -ni ـنی suffix as a definite article when they are direct objects; unsuffixed nouns are understood as indefinite. The dative case ending -ga ـگه changes to -ka ـکه when the noun ends in -k ـک, -g ـگ, or -qa ـقه when the noun ends in -q ـق, -gʻ ـغ (notice *tog‘qatoqqa تاغقَّه). The possessive suffixes change the final consonants -k ـک and -q ـق to voiced -g ـگ and -gʻ ـغ, respectively ( yurakyura gim یورک - یورگیم). Unlike neighbouring and languages, due to the loss of "pronominal -n-" there is no irregularity in forming cases after possessive cases ( uyida اویی‌ده "in his/her/its house", as opposed to Turkmen öýü nde اویونده, though saying uyi nda اویینده is also correct but such style is mainly used in literary contexts).
(2025). 9780080877747, Elsevier. .
+ Cases
-∅اوی
house
-ning نینگاوی‌نینگ
house-GEN
of (the) house
-ga گهاوی‌گه
house-DAT
to the house
-ni نیاوی‌نی
house-DEF.ACC
the house
-da دهاوی‌ده
house-LOC
in the house
-dan دناوی‌دن
house-ABL
from the house
instrumental (literary)-la لهاوی‌له
house-INS
with the house
similative-day, -dek, -daqa دی، دیک، دقهاوی‌دی، اوی‌دیک، اوی‌دقه
house-SIM
like (a) house

+ Possessive cases
1st-(i)m ـم، ـیم-(i)miz ـمیز، ـیمیز
2nd-(i)ng ـنگ، ـینگ-(i)ngiz ـنگیز، ـینگیز
3rd-(s)i ـی، ـسی


Verbs
Uzbek verbs are also inflected for number and person of the subject, and it has more . Uzbek uses some of the inflectional (simple) verbal tenses:
>
+ Non-finite tense suffixes ! Function ! Suffix ! Example
>
+ Finite tense suffixes ! Function ! Suffix ! Example


Notes
Vowels marked with parentheses in the suffixes are dropped if the verb root already ends on a vowel. (e.g. Qara قَرَه‌ + (i)ng ـِینْگ = Qarang! قَرَه‌نْگ; "Look!")

Third person plural is commonly replaced by third person singular.

In the simple past and conditional tenses, the possessive suffixes are used at the end of the verb. Otherwise, the full pronoun suffix is used, except in the imperative. The third person is usually not marked.


Copula verb
Conjugations of the verb ermoq (to be) with regard to tenses (except for future tense), serve as copula verbs. Future conjugation of ermoq, (Old Turkic ergäy) is not present in Uzbek.


Negation
Negative is expressed by adding -ma after the verb root, or with auxiliary verb emas. Examples:

Koʻrmay(man) کورمه‌ی(من) "(I) don't see"

Koʻrmoqchi emas(man) کورماقچی ایمس(من) "(I) don't want to see"

The particle yoʻq ـیوق is used to mark the absence or prohibition of a noun or action.


Gerund
The gerund is formed with the verb root + ish ـیش.

Chekish mumkin emas چیکیش ممکن ایمس "Smoking is not allowed"


Pronouns
men مین-man ـمنI
biz بیز-miz ـمیزwe
sen سین-san ـسن you
(formal singular and informal singular without respect)
senlar سین‌لر-sanlar سن‌لرyou
(informal plural without respect)
siz سیز-siz ـسیزyou
(formal plural and informal singular with respect)
sizlar سیزلر-sizlar ـسیزلرyou
(informal plural with respect)
u او-∅ ـhe/she/it
ular اولر-lar ـلر they


Word order
The word order in the Uzbek language is subject–object–verb (SOV), like all other Turkic languages. Unlike in English, the object comes before the verb and the verb is the last element of the sentence.


Influences
The influence of , and by extension, , is evident in Uzbek . There is also a residual influence of , from the time when were under the rule of the and the . There are a large number of Russian loanwords in Uzbek, particularly when related to technical and modern terms, as well everyday and sociopolitical terms. Most importantly, Uzbek vocabulary, phraseology and pronunciation has been heavily influenced by through its historic roots. It is estimated that Uzbek contains about 60 Mongolian loanwords, scattered among the names of birds and other animals, household items, chemical elements and especially military terms.


Dialects
Uzbek can be roughly divided into three dialect groups. The Karluk dialects, centered on Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and the Ferghana Valley, are the basis for the standard Uzbek language. This dialect group shows the most influence of Persian vocabulary, particularly in the important Tajik-dominated cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. The Kipchak dialect, spoken from the Surxondaryo region through north-central Uzbekistan into , shows significant influence from the Kipchak Turkic languages, particularly in the mutation of j to ʑ as in and . The Oghuz dialect, spoken mainly in along the Turkmenistan border, is notable for the mutation of word-initial k to g.


By country

Turkmenistan
In Turkmenistan since the 2000s the government conducted a forced "" of ethnic Uzbeks living in the country. In the Soviet years and in the 1990s, the Uzbek language was used freely in Turkmenistan. There were several hundred schools in the Uzbek language, many newspapers were published in this language. Now there are only a few Uzbek schools in the country, as well as a few newspapers in Uzbek. Despite this, the Uzbek language is still considered to be one of the recognized languages of national minorities in this country. Approximately 300,000–600,000 Uzbeks live in Turkmenistan. Most of the Uzbek speakers live in Dashoghuz Velayat, as well as in and partly in .


Russia
Uzbek is one of the many recognized languages of national minorities in . More than 400 thousand are citizens of the Russian Federation and live in the country. Also in Russia there are 2 to 6 million Uzbeks from the republics (mainly , and ) who are immigrants and migrants. Large diasporas of Uzbeks live in large cities of Russia such as . Signs in Uzbek are often found in these cities. Signs refer mainly to various restaurants and eateries, barbershops, shops selling fruits, vegetables and textile products. There is a small clinic, where signs and labels are in the Uzbek language. Uzbeks in Russia prefer to use the Cyrillic Uzbek alphabet, but in recent years Uzbek youth in Russia are also actively using the Latin Uzbek alphabet. Small newspapers in Uzbek are published in large cities of Russia. Some instructions for immigrants and migrants are duplicated, including in Uzbek. Uzbek language is studied by Russian students in the faculties of throughout Russia. The largest Uzbek language learning centers in Russia are located in the universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. There are also many who are interested in and love the Uzbek language and culture and who study this language for themselves. Uzbek is one of the most studied languages among the many languages of the former USSR in Russia.


Uzbek language researchers
Scientific interest in the history of the Uzbek language arose in the 19th century among European and Russian orientalists. A. Vambery, V. Bartold, Sh. Lapin and others wrote about the history of the Uzbek language. Much attention was paid to the study of the history of the language in the Soviet period. E. Polivanov, N.Baskakov,Baskakov N. A. Istoriko-tipologicheskaya fonologiya tyurkskikh yazykov M.: Nauka, 1988. A.Kononov,Kononov A. N. Grammatika sovremennogo uzbekskogo literaturnogo yazyka. M., L.: Izdatel'stvo AN SSSR, 1960 U. Tursunov, A. Mukhtarov, Sh. Rakhmatullaev and others wrote about the history of the Uzbek language among famous linguists.


Development
1900: Early 20th Century Speakers: Approximately 2–4 million. The Uzbek-speaking population was primarily concentrated in Central Asia, within the territories of the Russian Empire, including present-day Uzbekistan, parts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Global Rank: Likely around 30–40th place. Uzbek was not widely recognized globally as it was primarily spoken in rural and regional areas.

1950: Soviet Era Speakers: Around 7–8 million. The population grew due to natural growth and urbanization under the Soviet Union. Uzbek became one of the officially recognized languages of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Global Rank: Approximately 25–30th place. As a regional language in the USSR, Uzbek gained institutional support in education and media, increasing its influence within Central Asia.

1991: Post-Soviet Independence Speakers: Around 16–20 million. After Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Uzbek was declared the official language of the Republic of Uzbekistan. This led to a revival of Uzbek culture and a shift away from Russian dominance in education and government. Global Rank: Around 20–25th place. With the fall of the USSR, Uzbek gained prominence as a national language, and its number of speakers increased due to population growth.

2024: Current Status Speakers: Estimated 35–40 million. Uzbek is primarily spoken in Uzbekistan but also in neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as by diaspora communities worldwide. Global Rank: 18–20th place. Uzbek is now one of the top 20 most spoken languages globally, thanks to Uzbekistan's large population (over 36 million) and Uzbek-speaking minorities in surrounding countries. It is increasingly recognized on digital platforms, in media, and in academia.


Sample text
The following is a sample text in Uzbek Arabic script of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with English version in the bottom), contrasted with a version of the text in Uzbek written in Latin script.


See also


Notes

Sources
  • (2025). 9781931546836, Dunwoody Press.
  • (2025). 9780415412612, Routledge.
  • (2025). 9783895866951, Lincom Europa.
  • (1991). 9783110853384, Mouton de Gruyter.
  • (1995). 9780933070363, Indiana University, Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies.
  • (1996). 9781881265450, Dunwoody Press.
  • (1997). 9780700708185, Curzon Press.
  • (1980). 9780197135976, Oxford University Press.
  • Republic of Uzbekistan, Ministry of Higher and Middle Eductation. Lotin yozuviga asoslangan oʻzbek alifbosi va imlosi ( Latin writing based Uzbek alphabet and orthography), Tashkent Finance Institute: Tashkent, 2004.
  • A. Shermatov. "A New Stage in the Development of Uzbek Dialectology" in Essays on Uzbek History, Culture and Language. Ed. Bakhtiyar A. Nazarov & Denis Sinor. Bloomington, Indiana, 1993, pp. 101–9.


External links
Converters

Dictionaries

Grammar and orthography

Learning/teaching materials
  • [23], Learn Uzbek (in Russian)
  • [24], Learn Uzbek (in English)
  • Ona tili uz, a website about Uzbek
  • , Uz-Translations

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